Education in China

Education in China

Education in China is growing. Over the past years Chinas education

system has been attempting, and been successful in improving the

education in China. China for many years did not put much emphasis on

education. China was more traditional, meaning they were more

interested in farming and working. Prior the 1840 education in China

was only for the elite, the high class. The main purpose of education

was to train what China called “gentlemen” or high officials. This is

the time of Confucius, a Chinese philosopher who introduced China to

the Royal Examination System, which is used to select imperial

officers. Chinas education was very rigid and it focused highly on

technology thus China has a high rate of illiteracy. Early Chinese

students were not very well rounded; they were limited in what they

could study. For example a student of science would not know much

about Humanities, and vice versa, a student of Humanities would not

know much about science. This approach of learning narrowed the range

of knowledge that a Chinese student might have. This would limit the

students thinking and restrict their future development. When a

student is limited in what he of she can do then that will

dramatically decrease the number of jobs that they have to chose

from.

American education is a lot different than the early Chinese

education. In America, school is for developing critical thinking

skills. American education teaches students to apply what they learn

in the class to the outside world. They teach students to think

outside of the box and how to think deep and to apply ...

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...ing face”; this means that the students would rather

not know the answer than to ask a “dumb” question. Teachers don’t

encourage questions during class and don’t allow much debate.

There are both strengths and weaknesses to both Chinese and American

education methods. Chinese students study hard and often. They are

viewing school as a privilege and a competition while most Americans

view school as boring and tiresome. While Americans struggle with

memorization and discipline, they are strong in critical thinking.

American students are more rounded and able to apply what they have

learned too many different things, whereas the Chinese are somewhat

limited. I would have to say that all in all both systems have their

positives and their negatives but as the years progress, improvement

in each country will also.